Page 1703 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 August 2007
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tracking. Issues that we looked at included the 2010 education strategy. We know that the decision that was made in December was somewhat different from the plans that were announced in June. However, we never really found out on what basis the decisions were made. The evidence that was presented by the minister last year—and again this year when he was questioned on it—did not go to the heart of the issues that the community and members wanted to know. So we still do not know exactly what are the impacts of those closures.
The Griffith library closure was not even mentioned in last year’s budget, though it was obvious that something was afoot with libraries. So that came out of the blue and really devastated a community. I do not think people realise how, in a town like Canberra, things like libraries and schools are so central to our sense of who we are as a community. We have pride in being a community that is interested in learning. We are a highly educated community. Perhaps we will not be if we do not have good, accessible schools and libraries.
The closure of Civic and other shopfronts was another blow that reduced service delivery of the ACT government. Again it is hard to monitor these things when there has been no follow-up research. I ask questions about them, but I would have thought the government would be doing that work anyway. The changes to SAP services indicate reduced service delivery. We were told the changes were intended to make administration more efficient but inevitably there have been reductions in service delivery.
Some advocacy groups on housing have had their funding cut. CHOACT, the community housing organisation of the ACT, does not exist any longer because it could not survive on its funding. Perhaps there were changes to the community housing sector that might have made that organisation less viable. But where is the work that tells us this? The government has accepted that the changes to the bus services were painful for the community so now we are seeing a bit of tightening around the edges, but in the same year that the government produces a climate change strategy, indicating that the problem is so serious it requires government action, I do not know how we can countenance having a bus service that is less than excellent.
So my recommendations are, first of all, I concur with the Liberal opposition that we absolutely must see the report of that function review. How can we measure where we are going if we do not know what was anticipated. What were the objectives of last year’s budget cuts? How are we tracking? How does this year’s budget address those things? I want to see the work that the government does to measure the impact of the decisions it makes. Spending decisions are the biggest decisions and the most direct way that the government implements what happens in a community. So my second recommendation was that the government conduct a valuation of last year’s budget impact on education, government service delivery, SAP services, advocacy and public transport use and release these evaluations publicly so that next year’s budget takes them into account.
I said at the outset that I would be looking at this budget from the perspective of how it addresses climate change concerns. I have to say that it failed on that measure. Perhaps most disappointingly, given the rhetoric of the government for the past eight to 10 years now since the government nominally adopted a triple bottom line
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